Nigeria approves $2.5bn bid for Nitel

Nigeria has approved a controversial $2.5bn offer for the country's main fixed-line telecoms group, but has demanded that the winning consortium come up with a $750m downpayment to secure the sale.

The approval follows years of ill-fated efforts to sell off Nitel, which has withered since liberalization a decade ago enabled MTN and Zain to make Africa's most populous nation one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms markets. The winning bid at February's privatization auction caused consternation when it valued a 75 per cent stake in Nitel at five times the $500m that industry experts estimated to be the group's top-end valuation.